Monday, December 26, 2011
268 - Hitch, Tebow, and God Almighty
Spirituality Column #268
December 27, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)
Hitch, Tebow, and God Almighty
By Bob Walters
Christopher Hitchens possessed a rare – one could say entirely unique – knack for writing.
His complex but nonetheless lucid, interesting, and grammatically perfect sentences presented all manner of philosophical, literary, historical, and political citations and comparisons in support of his razor-sharp, rational observations about the world and the people in it. His sentences constructed countless essays, articles and books – and fame – before he died December 15, 2011, of esophageal cancer.
Hitchens wore his atheism on his sleeve, writing God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything in 2007. It seemed to me he wrote desperately, as if hoping to argue eloquently enough to make God and religion just go away. Paradoxically, it was not uncommon for “Hitch” to refer to “the Almighty” as an existent, proper noun.
Tim Tebow possesses a rare – one could say entirely unique – athletic ability. It facilitated his entirely unanticipated success as the Plan B quarterback of the Denver Broncos. Tebow’s skills and leadership spawned a jaw-dropping string of Bronco wins this season. Flummoxed sports analysts relentlessly chattered that Tebow (shhh! … a devout, professing Christian) still lacked the proper skill set to be an NFL quarterback, but couldn’t figure out how to properly ask, “Is Tebow’s success a sign from God???”
Tebow wears his Christian faith on his sleeve, in his posture (“Tebowing” – kneeling on one knee, elbow on the other knee, forehead resting on the thumb-side of his fist, praying – is a “flash mob” fad), and he even used to wear it on his face (remember the Bible verses on his anti-glare below-the-eye cheek patches?).
Sportscaster Bob Costas recently pondered inconclusively on national TV, “There’s something about Tebow,” implying but not directly describing Tebow’s unbridled openness about his belief in and witness for Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. My thought was … “You may as well go ahead and say it, Bob, because that cat’s out of the bag: Christ’s light shines through Tebow’s witness. Amen.”
But what does that have to do with football? And where, exactly, do we suppose God is in all this? God is precisely where God always is – above it all, in us all, around us all, knowing all. The enormity of the Almighty transcends our ability to define God logically (hence: “Judge not,” Matthew 7:1, etc.), while the reality of Jesus Christ “given … for all mankind” (John 3:16), puts us with God eternally.
God loves us all; our own faith is the only variable. Tebow’s football success doesn’t prove God’s presence any more than Hitchens’ writing proves God’s absence.
God never, ever, fits into those kinds of boxes.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) mourns Hitchens’ passing and cheers Tebow’s passing. Tough loss to the Pats, though.
December 27, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)
Hitch, Tebow, and God Almighty
By Bob Walters
Christopher Hitchens possessed a rare – one could say entirely unique – knack for writing.
His complex but nonetheless lucid, interesting, and grammatically perfect sentences presented all manner of philosophical, literary, historical, and political citations and comparisons in support of his razor-sharp, rational observations about the world and the people in it. His sentences constructed countless essays, articles and books – and fame – before he died December 15, 2011, of esophageal cancer.
Hitchens wore his atheism on his sleeve, writing God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything in 2007. It seemed to me he wrote desperately, as if hoping to argue eloquently enough to make God and religion just go away. Paradoxically, it was not uncommon for “Hitch” to refer to “the Almighty” as an existent, proper noun.
Tim Tebow possesses a rare – one could say entirely unique – athletic ability. It facilitated his entirely unanticipated success as the Plan B quarterback of the Denver Broncos. Tebow’s skills and leadership spawned a jaw-dropping string of Bronco wins this season. Flummoxed sports analysts relentlessly chattered that Tebow (shhh! … a devout, professing Christian) still lacked the proper skill set to be an NFL quarterback, but couldn’t figure out how to properly ask, “Is Tebow’s success a sign from God???”
Tebow wears his Christian faith on his sleeve, in his posture (“Tebowing” – kneeling on one knee, elbow on the other knee, forehead resting on the thumb-side of his fist, praying – is a “flash mob” fad), and he even used to wear it on his face (remember the Bible verses on his anti-glare below-the-eye cheek patches?).
Sportscaster Bob Costas recently pondered inconclusively on national TV, “There’s something about Tebow,” implying but not directly describing Tebow’s unbridled openness about his belief in and witness for Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. My thought was … “You may as well go ahead and say it, Bob, because that cat’s out of the bag: Christ’s light shines through Tebow’s witness. Amen.”
But what does that have to do with football? And where, exactly, do we suppose God is in all this? God is precisely where God always is – above it all, in us all, around us all, knowing all. The enormity of the Almighty transcends our ability to define God logically (hence: “Judge not,” Matthew 7:1, etc.), while the reality of Jesus Christ “given … for all mankind” (John 3:16), puts us with God eternally.
God loves us all; our own faith is the only variable. Tebow’s football success doesn’t prove God’s presence any more than Hitchens’ writing proves God’s absence.
God never, ever, fits into those kinds of boxes.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) mourns Hitchens’ passing and cheers Tebow’s passing. Tough loss to the Pats, though.
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